Read on to find out what we got up to this week, and a preview of week 5.

Important notices:

- Tuesday 28th - Hub 6 are off to the Travis Wetlands - 6RF in the morning, 6GF in the afternoon, and 6SL split between the two.

- Wednesday 29th - the school is closed for instruction due to the teacher strike

- Friday 31st - Winter sport from 12:15pm

Pause, Breath, Smile (PBS) programme - we had our second session this week, looking at two types of happiness: treat, and peace inside happiness. 

Students then looked at practising gratitude:

• Practising gratitude is an excellent way to develop peace-inside happiness

• Great for helping us notice things that are going well, instead of fixating on what is not going well

This concluded with students sharing the things that they are grateful for.

Literacy

Literacy programmes are in full swing, with the familiarity of each class programme ensuring students are getting maximum time for literacy, and the targeting of their needs.

Over in Mr Forman's literacy room we are using the reciprocal reading approach when doing guided reading sessions. Reciprocal reading empowers the students to lead and be more involved in their session as they are given the roles of leader, predictor, clarifier, questioner or summariser.

The aim is to ensure all students are actively engaged and participating as they have to contribute throughout the session. 

It is pleasing to see their confidence developing, and the increasing quality of the discussions.

Mathematics

We have just wrapped up our measurement unit and will be starting our strategy: multiplication and division next week.

Students have been grouped according to needs and will meet in their new maths groups on Monday. Our recent measurement units was done in whanau class; our multiplication and division strategy and basic facts learning will see students from all three classes mixed.

Maths Whizz

An analysis of hub 6 data from the team at Maths Whizz indicate that many students are meeting the target of an average  of 4 progressions each week across the term, and many are averaging 60 minutes or more. These students have also made pleasing progress (Maths Whiz call is 'return on investment').

However, there is still some who are not accessing maths whizz outside of what they get at school. We have spoken with students and reiterated the importance of regular, daily Maths Whizz practise at home. They can also do xtra maths for their basic facts.

We ask for your support with this, as once they get into the habit, they really seem to enjoy it.

If there is any help or support you need with this, please just ask.

Integrated Learning

This week we started our learning around New Zealand habitats and their fauna. Students learned about the difference between introduced, native and endemic animals and species. We used the DOC website www.doc.govt.nz to support our understanding, as they have a great section on NZ habitats, as well as native and endemic animals.

This will lead nicely into our visit to the Travis Wetlands next week.

The ARTs

Drums could be heard, drama was being acted out, and our budding visual artists sketched wonderful tui birds during art rotation this week. A short video is attached of some artists showing off their tui sketches.

Kauri Cross Country

On Wednesday  afternoon the Kauri team headed down to Westlake Park for an annual cross country. We were fortunate with the weather, ideal running weather. The event went very well with strong competition for places in each year level, as well as students pushing themselves to complete the course as quickly as they could.

It was pleasing to see students supporting each other by cheering them on or running alongside them. Hub 6 managed to earn quite a few house points throughout the event.

Congratulations to the following hub 6 students who finished in the first 3 for their event. They have earned the right to represent Oaklands at the SW Zone cross country to be held at the Halswell Quarry on Wednesday June 5th.

Year 6 girls

1st - Xanthe Munro

2nd - Natalia Lyford

3rd - Avia Stevens

Year 6 boys

1st - Cody Foster

2nd - Wilbur Hensley

3rd - Caleb Hiku

Passion Project

Passion Projects are in full swing. A large number of students are in the Rocket Challenge group. Our aim is to design and build water bottle rockets that will fly high into the sky.

To aid us we have 3 ambassadors - a traffic, river and structural engineer visit each Thursday to help us. 

We have set up our crews, organised our crew folders, completed a student survey, and a group of students (trainee engineers) worked with Thomas and Ryan to assemble the rocket launcher system.

We have added a few photos of what we have been up to.

Week 5

Monday, Thursday and Friday are regular learning days in hub 6 with our literacy and numeracy programme, and choir, kapahaka, te Reo and winter sport on Friday.

On Tuesday we are off to the Travis Wetlands. For those going in the afternoon, the morning is spent on pre-learning about where we will visit so that we get the most out of our trip. 

Thank you to our wonderful parent helpers who will be joining us. Rebecca will have contacted you with details about departure etc.

Friday will see our third week of the winter sport programme;  hopefully the day will be as warm and dry as the last two.

Wednesday: As mentioned at the top of this article, the school will be closed for instruction due to the teacher strike.

Please don't hesitate to get in contact with us should you have any questions about any aspect of your child's learning. We are here to help.

Cheers

Grant (on behalf of Steve and Rebecca)